Ya Lyublu Klivlandye!–I Love Cleveland!

Cleveland is the land of my heart. Born and raised there, I grew up proud of my semi-thriving, not really midwest, metropolis. I’ve lived away for 3 years now, but it still remains #1 in my heart.

I thought I liked Cleveland before, but my love has grown even more since I’ve gotten involved with New Horizons for Children. In the past 2 years, I’ve discovered the great treasure of the Eastern European richness of my hometown. Not only is there a large population of Slavic peoples, there are also many churches, stores, and restaurants that bring a little piece of Kiev right to my hometown. In recent years, the neighborhood I was born in has been designated as “Ukrainian Village” …perhaps it was destiny. C:

Today I got together with our local host families to enjoy some of this great culture in our own town. First we took the host kids to the zoo, then some of us got a little taste of Cleveland-Ukrainian culture at a Ukrainian festival. It was so cool to see the two Ukrainian host girls excited to share their culture with their host families and see the host families get to share with other Ukrainian locals about the awesome girls they are hosting for the summer.

Here’s a short list of the little slices of Ukraine I’ve discovered throughout Cleveland, let me know if you know of some more, & I’ll stay on the hunt to add more!